PR 4859 
.K6 04 
1883 
Copy 1 



OH, WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT 
OF MORTAL BE PROUD? 



WILLIAM KNOX 



DESIGNS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY 



Engraved by John Andrew & Son 



BOSTON 
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK 

CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 

1883 






Copyright, 
by lee and shepard. 

1876. 



Gift 

Miss J.A.Butlar 
Aug.l8 1927 





|i H, why should the spirit of mortal 
be proud? 

Like a swift fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 




The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade. 
Be scattered around and together be laid ; 
And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
Shall moulder to dust and tosfether shall lie. \ 




HE infant a mother attended and 
loved ; 
The mother that infant's affection who 

iThe husband that mother and infant 
who blessed, 
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 




HE maid on whose cheek, on whose 
brow, in whose eye. 
Shone beauty and pleasure, — her triumphs are by ; 
And the memory of those who loved her and praised, 
Are alike from the minds of the living erased. 




HE hand of the king that the 
sceptre hath borne; 
1 he brow of the priest that the 
mitre hath worn ; 
The eye i lli sage and the heart of the brave, 
Are hidden and lost in the depth of the grave. 




'HE peasant whose 

lot was to sow and to reap ; 
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up 

the steep ; 
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread, 
Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 




IHE saint who enjoyed the communion 
of heaven, 

The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven, 
The wise and the fooHsh, the guilty and just, 
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. 




So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed 
That withers away to let others succeed ; 
So the multitude comes, even those we behold, 
To repeat every tale that has often been told. 




'OR we are the same our fathers have 
been ; 
We see the same sights our fathers have seen, — 
We drink the same stream and view the same 

sun, 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 




The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would 

think ; 
From the death we are shrinking our fathers would 

shrink ; 
To the life we are clinging they also would cling; 
But it speeds for us all, like a bird on the wing. 




^HEY loved, but the story we cannot 
unfold ; 
They scorned, but the heart of the haughty 
^i<m[^"'"' is cold ; 

They grieved, but no wail from their 
slumbers will come ; 
They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 




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They died, ay ! they died : and we things that are 

now, 
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
Who make in their dwelling a transient abode, 
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage 

road. 





^^r\./^ E A ! hope and despondency, pleasure 
and pain, 
We mingle toofether in sunshine and 
rain ; 
And the smiles and the tears, the song and the 

dirge, 
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 




'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud, — 
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 525 226 A 



ILLUSTRATED 

HYMNS AND POEMS. 



Uniform volumes. 4to. Illustrated- Cloth, full gilt, |i. 50; or Illuminated 
Covers in colors and gold, new style, $1.50. 



THAT GLORIOUS SONG OF OLD. 

BY EDMUND HAMILTON SEARS- ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALFRED FREDERICKS. 

RING OUT, WILD BELLS. 

BY ALFRED TENNYSON. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY. 

HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP. 

BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY. 

HOME, SWEET HOME. 

BY JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY. 

O WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL BE 
PROUD? 

BY WILLIAM KNOX. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY. 

ABIDE WITH ME. 

BY HENRY FRANCIS LYTE. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. B- HUMPHREY. 

ROCK OF AGES. 

BY AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADV. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L- B. HUMPHREY. 

THE BREAKING WAVES DASHED HIGH, 

BY FELICIA HE.MANS. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. B. HUMPHREY 

NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE. 

BY SARAH FLOWER ADAMS. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MISS L. E. HUMPHREY. 



LEE AND SHEPARD 



PUBLISHERS, 



BOSTON. 



